Quaking Member down again to his Burrough Now the number of them is so encreased that the Peaceable part of the House may lawfully swear they are in fear of their Lives from such an Awful Appearance of Men of War It maketh the Room look like a Guard-house by such an ill-suited mixture But this is only the out-side the bark of the Argument the root goeth yet deeper against Chusing such Men whose Talents ought to be otherwise applied Their two Capacities are so inconsistent that Mens undertaking to serve both the Cures will be the cause in a little time that we shall neither have Men of War nor Men of Business good in their several kinds An Officer is to give up his Liberty to obey Orders and it is necessarily incident to his Calling that he should do so A Member of Parliament is originally to be tender of his own Liberty that other Men may the better trust him with theirs An Officer is to enable himself by his Courage improved by Skill and Experience to support the Laws if Invaded when they are made but he is not supposed to be at leisure enough to understand how they should be made A Member of Parliament is to fill his thoughts with what may best conduce to the Civil Administration which is enough to take up the whole Man let him be never so much raised above the ordinary Level These two opposite Qualifications being placed in one Man make him such an ambiguous divided Creature that he doth not know how to move It is best to keep Men within their proper Sphere few Men have Understanding enough exactly to fill even one narrow Circle fewer able to fill two especially when they are both of so great compass and that they are so contrary in their own Natures The Wages he hath as a Member and those he receiveth as an Officer are paid for Services that are very differing and in the doubt which of them should be preferably performed it is likely the greater Salary may direct him without the further inducements of complying most where he may expect most advantage by it In short if his dependance is not very great it will make him a scurvey Officer if it is great it will make him a scurvier Member XVIII Men under the scandal of being thought private Pensioners are too fair a mark to escape being consider'd in reference to the point in Question In case of plain Evidence it is not to be suppos'd possible that Men convicted of such a Crime should ever again be Elected The difficulty is in determining what is to be done in case of suspicion There are suspicions so well grounded that they may pretend to have the force of proofs provided the penalty goeth only to the forbearing to Trust but not extending it so far as to Punish There must be some things plain and express to justify the latter but Circumstances may be sufficient for the former As where Men have had such sudden Cures of their ill Humours and opposition to the Court that it is out of the way of ordinary methods of recovery from such Distempers which have a much slower progress it must naturally be imputed to some Specifick that maketh such a quick alteration of the whole Mass of Blood Where Men have raised their way of Living without any visible means to support them in it a suspicion is justifi'd even by the Example of the Law which in cases of this kind though of an inferior nature doth upon this foundation not only raise Inferences but inflict Punishments Where Men are immoral and scandalous in their Lives and dispense familiarly with the Rules by which the World is Govern'd for the better preserving the bonds of human Society it must be a confidence very ill placed to conclude it impossible for such Men to yield to a Temptation well offer'd and pursu'd when the truth is the habit of such Bons vivants which is the fashionable word maketh a suspicion so likely that it is very hard not to believe it to be true If there should be nothing but the general Report even that is not to be neglected Common Fame is the only Lyar that deserveth to have some Respect still reserv'd to it tho she telleth many an Untruth she often hits right and most especially when she speaketh ill of men Her Credit hath sometimes been carried too far when it hath gone to the divesting men of any thing of which they were possess'd without more express evidence to justify such a proceeding If there was a doubt whether there ever was any Corruption of this kind it would alter the Question but sure that will not bear the being controverted We are told That Charles the Fifth sent over into England 1200000 Crowns to be distributed amongst the Leading Men to encourage them to carry on Elections Here was the Protestant Religion to be bought out for a valuable Consideration according to Law though not according to Gospel which exalteth it above any Price that can be set upon it Now except we had reason to believe that the Vertue of the World is improv'd since that time we can as little doubt that such Temptations may be Offer'd as that they may be Receiv'd It will be owned that there is to be a great tenderness in Suspecting but it must be allow'd at the same time that there ought not to be less in Trusting where the People are so much concern'd especially when the Penalty upon the Party suspected goeth no further than a suspension of that Confidence which it is necessary to have in those who are to represent the Nation in Parliament I cannot omit the giving a Caution against admitting Men to be chosen who have Places of any value There needeth the less to be said upon this Article the truth of the Proposition being supported by such plain Arguments Sure no Man hath such a plentiful spring of Thought as that all that floweth from it is too much to be appli'd to the Business of Parliament It is not less sure that a Member of Parliament of all others ought least to be exempted from the Rule That no man should serve two Masters It doth so split a man's Thoughts that no man can know how to make a fitting distribution of them to two such differing Capacities It exposeth Men to be suspected and tempted more than is convenient for the Publick Service or for the mutual good Opinion of one another which there ought to be in such an Assembly It either giveth a real dependance upon the Government which is inconsistent with the necessity there is that a Member of Parliament should be disengaged or at least it hath the appearance of it which maketh them not look like Freemen though they should have vertue enough to be so More Reasons would lessen the Weight of this last which is That a Bill to this effect commonly called the Self-Denying Bill pass'd even this last House of Commons A greater demonstration of the irresistible strength of Truth cannot possibly be given so that a Copy of that Bill in every County or Burrough would hardly fail of discouraging such Pretenders from Standing or at least it would prevent their Success if their own Modesty should not restrain them from attempting it XX. If Distinctions may be made upon particular Men or Remarks fix'd upon their Votes in Parliament they must be allow'd in relation to those Gentlemen who for Reasons best known to themselves thought fit to be against the Triennial Bill The Liberty of Opinion is the thing in the World that ought least to be controll'd and especially in Parliament But as that is an undoubted Assertion it is not less so That when Men Sin against their own Light give a Vote against their own Thought they must not plead Privilege of Parliament against the being Arraigned for it by others after they are Convicted of it by themselves There cannot be a Man who in his definition of a House of Commons will state it to be an Assembly that for the better redressing of Grievances the People feel and for the better furnishing such Supplies as they can bear is to continue if the King so pleaseth for his whole Reign This could be as little intended as to throw all into one Hand and to renounce the Claim to any Liberty but so much as the Sovereign Authority would allow It destroyeth the end of Parliaments it maketh use of the Letter of the Law to extinguish the Life of it It is in truth some kind of Disparagement to so plain a thing that so much has been said and written upon it and one may say It is such an Affront to those Gentlemens Understandings to censure this Vote only as a Mistake that as the Age goeth it is less Discredit to them to call it by its right Name and if that is rightly understood by those who are to chuse them I suppose they will let them Exercise their Liberty of Conscience at home and not make Men their Trustees who in this Solemn Instance have such an unwillingness to surrender It must be own'd That this Bill hath met with very hard Fortune and yet that doth not in the least diminish the value of it It had in it such a Root of Life that it might be said It was not Dead but Sleeped and we see that the last Session it was revived and animated by the Royal Assent when once fully inform'd of the Consequence as well as of the Justice of it In the mean time after having told my Opinion Who ought not to be Chosen If I should be ask'd who ought to be my Answer must be Chuse Englishmen and when I have said that to deal honestly I will not undertake that they are easy to be found FINIS
matter here upon which they might exercise their Jurisdiction To conclude this Head There are so few that ever mended in these Cases that after the first Experiment it is not at all reasonable to take them upon a new Trial. IV. Men who are unquiet and busy in their Natures are to give more than ordinary proofs of their Integrity before the Electing them into a Publick Trust can be justified As a hot Summer breedeth greater swarms of Flies so an active time breedeth a greater number of these shineing Gentlemen It is pretty sure That men who cannot allow themselves to be at rest will let no body else be at quiet Such a perpetual Activity is apt by degrees to be applied to the pursuit of their private Interest And their thoughts being in a continual motion they have not time to dwell long enough upon any thing to entertain a scruple So that they are generally at full liberty to do what is most convenient for them without being fettered by any Restraints Nay further Whenever it happeneth that there is an Impunity for Cheating these nimble Gentlemen are apt to think it a disparagement to their Understandings not to go into it I doubt it is not a wrong to the present Age to say That a Knave is a less unpopular Calling than it hath been in former times And to say truth it would be ingratitude in some Men to turn Honest when they owe all they have to their Knavery The People are in this respect unhappy they are too many to do their own business their numbers which make their strength are at the same time the cause of their weakness they are too unweildy to move and for this reason nothing can ever redeem them from this incurable Impotency So that they must have Solicitors to pursue and look after their Interests who are too often disposed to dispense with the Fidelity they owe to those that trust them especially if the Government will pay their Bills without Abatement It is better these Gentlemen's dexterity should be employed any where than in Parliament where the ill consequence of their being Members is too much diffused and not restrained to the County or Burrough who shall be so unwary as to Chuse them V. Great Drinkers are less fit to Serve in Parliament than is apprehended Men's Virtue as well as their Understanding is apt to be tainted by it The appearance of it is Sociable and well-natur'd but it is by no means to be reli'd upon Nothing is more frail than a Man too far engaged in wet Popularity The habit of it maketh Men careless of their business and that naturally leadeth them into Circumstances that make them liable to Temptation It is seldom seen That any Principles have such a root as that they can be proof against the continual droppings of a Bottle As to the Faculties of the Mind there is not less Objection the vapours of Wine may sometimes throw out sparks of Wit but they are like scattered pieces of Ore there is no Vein to work upon Such Wit even the best of it is like paying great Fines in which case there must of necessity be an abatement of the constant Rent Nothing sure is a greater Enemy to the Brain than too much moisture it can the least of any thing bear the being continually steeped And it may be said that Thought may be resembled to some Creatures which can live only in a dry Country Yet so arrogant are some men as to think they are so much Masters of Business as that they can play with it they imagine they can drown their Reason once a day and that it shall not be the worse for it forgetting that by too often diving the Understanding at last groweth too weak to rise up again I will suppose this fault was less frequent when Solon made it one of his Laws That it was Lawful to Kill a Magistrate if he was found Drunk Such a Liberty taken in this Age either in the Parliament or out of it would do terrible Execution I cannot but mention a Petition in the year 1647 from the County of Devon to the House of Commons against the undue Election of Burgesses who are strong in Wine and weak in Wisdom The cause of such Petitions is to be prevented by Chusing such as shall not give handle for them VI. Wanting-Men give such cause of suspicion where-ever they deal that surely the Chusers will be upon their guard as often as such dangerous pretenders make their application to them Let the behaviour of such Men be never so plausible and untainted yet they who are to pitch upon those they are to trust with all they have may be excused if they do not only consider what they are but what they may be As we pray our selves we may not be led into Temptation we ought not by any means to thrust others into it even though our own Interest was not concerned And sure when it is the Argument hath not less force If a man hath a small Estate and a numerous Family where it happeneth that a Man hath as many Children as he hath Tenants It is not a Recommending Circumstance for his Election When it cometh to be the Question with such a Man Whether he shall be Just to the Publick or Cruel to his Family It is very possible the decision may be on the side of Corrupted Nature It is a Compliment to this Age which it doth not deserve to suppose Men are so ty'd up to Morality as that they cannot be pinched out of it especially now when it is called Starving not to be Embroidered or served in Plate The Men Chosen to serve their Countrey should not be loaden with Suits that may tempt them to assume Privileges much less under such Necessities as may more immediately prepare them for Corruption Men who need a Parliament for their own particular Interest have more reason to offer their Service than others have to accept of it And though I do not doubt but there may be some whose Virtue would triumph over their Wants let them be never so pressing yet to expose the Publick to the hazard of being deceived is that which can never be justifi'd by those that Chuse And tho it must be allow'd possible for a wanting-Man to be honest yet it is impossible for a Man to be wise that will depend upon it VII There is a sort of Men that have a Tinsel-wit which make them shine among those who cannot judge Club and Coffee-house Gentlemen Petty Merchants of small Conceits who have an Empty habit of prating without meaning They always aim at Wit and generally make false Fire Their business is less to learn than to set themselves out which makes them chuse to be with such as can only be Witnesses of their small Ingenuity rather than with such as might improve it There is a subordinate Wit as much inferior to a Wit of business as a Fidler at a Wake
Root as that he might grow up to be Timber without being remov'd If these Young Men had skill enough to pitch upon some Body in the House to whom they might resign their Opinion and upon whose Judgment they might lean without Reserve there might be less Objection But to speak Truth they know as little how to chuse as those did who elected them so that there is no other Expedient left than the letting them alone One may say generally speaking That a young Man being too soon qualifi'd for the serious Business of Parliaments would really be no good Symptom It is a sign of too much Phlegm and too little Fire in the beginning of Age if Men have not a little more heat than is convenient for as they grow older they will run a hazard of not having so much as is necessary The Truth is The vigour of Youth is soften'd and misappli'd when it is not spent either in War or close Studies all other Courses have an idle Mixture that cometh to nothing and maketh them like Trees which for want of Pruning run up to Wood and seldom or never bear any Fruit. To conclude this Head it must be own'd That there is no Age of our Life which doth not carry Arguments along with it to humble us and therefore it would be well for the Business of the World if young Men would stay longer before they went into it and old Men not so long before they went out of it X. Next to these may be rank'd a sort of superfine Gentlemen Carpet-Knights Men whose Heads may be said to be only Appurtenances to their Perukes which intirely ingross all their Care and Application Their Understanding is so strictly appropriated to their Dress that no part of it is upon pain of their utmost Displeasure to be diverted to any other use It is not by this intended to recommend an affected Clown or to make it a necessary Qualification for a Member of Parliament that he must renounce clean Linen or good Manners but surely a too earnest Application to make every thing sit Right about them striketh too deep into their small stock of Thoughts to allow it Furniture for any thing else To do Right to the these fine-spun Gentlemen Business is too course a thing for them which maketh it an unreasonable Hardship upon them to oppress them with it so that in tenderness to them no less than out of care to the Publick it is best to leave them to their Taylors with whom they will live in much better Correspondence when the Danger is prevented of their falling out about Privileges XI Men of Injustice and Violence in their private Dealings are not to be trusted by the People with a Commission to treat for them in Parliament In the 4th of Edw. 3. The King Commandeth in his Writs not to chuse any Knights who had been Guilty of Crime or Maintenance These warm Men seldom fail to run into Maintenance taken in a larger Extent It is an unnatural Sound to come from a Man that is Arbitrary in his Neighbourhood to talk of Laws and Liberties at Westminster he is not a proper Vehicle for such Words which ought never to be prophaned An habitual Breaker of the Laws to be made one of the Law-makers is as if the Benches in Westminster-hall should be filled with Men out of Newgate Those who are of this Temper cannot change their Nature out of respect to their Countrey Quite contrary they will less scruple to do Wrong to a Nation where no Body taketh it to himself than to particular Men to whose Resentments they are more immediately exposed In short they lye under such strong Objections that the over-ballance of better Men cannot altogether purify an Assemby where these unclean Beasts are admitted XII Excessive Spenders and unreasonable Savers are to be Excluded being both greedy from differing Causes They are both of them Diseases of Infection and for that Reason are not to be admitted into publick Assemblies A prodigal Man must be greedy because he thinketh he can never spend enough The Wretch must be so because he will never think he can hoard enough The World first admireth Men's Wisdom for getting Money and then raileth at them if they do not throw it away so that the Prodigal Man is only the less unpopular Extreme he is every jot as well prepared as the Miser to fall out with his Morals when once a good Temptation is offered him to lay them aside On the other side some rich Men are as eager to overtake those that are Richer as a Running-horse is to get to the Race-post before the other that contendeth with him Men often desire to heap rather because others have more than that they know what to do with that which they covet with so much Impatience So that it is plain the Fancy hath as great a share in this imaginary Pleasure of Gathering as it hath in Love Ambition or any other Passion It is pretty sure that as no Man was ever the Richer for having a good Estate if he did not look after it so neither will he be the Honester if he hath never so much Want of Care will always create want of Money so that whether a Man is a Beggar because he never had any Money or because he can never keep any it is all one to those who are to trust him Upon this head of Prodigality it may be no unreasonable Caution to be afraid of those who in former Service have been extravagantly Liberal of the Publick Money Trusting is so hazardous a thing that it should never be done but where it is necessary so that when Trustees are found upon Trial to be very Lavish even without examining into the Causes of it which are generally very suspicious it is a reasonable part of Preventing-Wit to change Hands or else the Chusers will pay the Penalty that belongeth to good Nature so misplaced and the Consequences will be attended with the Aggravation of their not being made Wiser by such a severe and costly warning XIII It would be of very great use to take a general Resolution throughout the Kingdom That none should be chosen for a County but such as have either in Possession or Reversion a considerable Estate in it nor for a Burrough except he be Resiant or that he hath some Estate in the County in present or Expectancy There have been Eminent Men of Law who were of opinion That in the Case of a Burgess of a Town not Resiant the Court is to give Judgment according to the Statute notwithstanding Custom to the contrary But not to insist now upon that the prudential part is Argument enough to set up a Rule to abrogate an ill Custom There is not perhaps a greater Cause of the Corruption of Parliaments than by adopting Members who may be said to have no title by their Births The Juries are by the Law to be Ex vicineto And shall there be less